14 Jul 2024 12:41:54
Jaguar, you ask what improvement is needed at DM. Well that question exposes my opinion on what TYPE of DM I believe LFC require. I love the ball playing DM - the likes of Alonso etc but right now I think we need one that makes a tackle, has energy and a defensive mindset. Lost count how many times i've watched LFC recently and been shouting out for someone to just make a tackle. If you want the ball player I will bow to your knowledge.
14 Jul 2024 13:38:09
Well it depends on how you play. Alonso type only works if you have a couple of destroyers by your side. Unfortunately we have none. Our midfielders are either runners or ball playing.
So yes I would also like a DM. A no nonsense DM. We have enough players who can pick a pass, we need someone who stops an attack.
Endo was an experiment and that more or less flopped as we now need an upgrade. It’s clear, had we bought a first class top DM last season we would have actually won the league.
The problem is we are not linked to any out and out DM atm.
14 Jul 2024 14:27:49
How was Endo an experiment that flopped? On the contrary, I think he made us look more solid when we played. I agree that we do need one more since he couldn't play the full 90 every single game, but there's no need to put him down to justify your opinion of needing one more DM.
14 Jul 2024 14:29:59
How did Endo more or less flop? At less than €20m he was pound for pound one of the signings of the season. He’s going nowhere by the way and he’ll definitely have a big part to play in our season with us in 4 competitions, even if we do sign another DM.
14 Jul 2024 15:01:05
The moment you say “I agree we need an upgrade” you are actually aligning with my opinion.
We needed a top DM last year. Ended up buying a 31 year old stop gap only for us to realize we need one more ???. If that’s not a failed experiment then I don’t know what one is.
Nothing wrong with Endo. We needed a starter and a top one. Had no money (Cough cough Caicedo Bid)
The only favor it did was to buy us some time (One full season)
@MK
If we buy a Top DM, then Endo can go as Bajectic would provide the cover or the kid will be pushed further down.
14 Jul 2024 15:05:03
Do we really need a destroyer over a more creative ball playing type? We tend to be on the attack more than being attacked so a ball playing type seems a bit more obvious to me than a hatchet man?
14 Jul 2024 15:51:01
Endo is a squad player a damn good one as we know. He was far better than Szoboszlai last season and was a fantastic DM. Is that to say we don’t need a proper destroyer, no, we do. But to say he’s a failed experiment is laughable.
14 Jul 2024 15:59:19
I'm just waiting for Jaguar to blame us not winning the title next year on a) not buying a pure destroyer of a DM, even though I've never really seen Slot use one (Wieffer certainly isn't that type of player, as we will see with Brighton) and b) not replacing Virgil, who Jaguar will tell us was already 'all over the place' in the Euros.
14 Jul 2024 16:07:27
Endo did have good season last season I'm not denying that, but I'm not personally sure he was the lynchpin that many believe he was.
He only started 52% of our league games and played just less than 50% of the mins in total of a 38 league game season overall.
If he was that important then we must have got very lucky the other 50% of minutes he didn't play in for us to finish 3rd and be in a title challenge.
14 Jul 2024 16:32:53
Couldn’t agree more with @JK. Endo did his part and I like him for his professionalism. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was an experiment more or less.
It’s the same case with Nunez. The experiment more or less failed but we are just extending the trial period for one more year ?
We were short last year. We are still short and if we don’t address it we will again fall short next year.
14 Jul 2024 16:56:19
Jaguar, I'd like to know who the 'top DM' you're speaking about who would've won us the league. If we had Palhinha or Ugarte instead of Endo, you think we would have won the league? If that's the case, are you saying we didn't win because Endo could have done better, or worse, that he actually failed us in key moments? How do you know that having somebody other than Endo would have given us better results? We didn't win the league for any number of a multitude of reasons, bad finishing, glaring tactical flaws, Klopp's annoucement taking its toll on the players etc., but to suggest that not having a better DM than Endo is really stretching it in my opinion. As if there is really a DM that can cover all the ground that was left exposed in transition by our tactical shortcomings. Maybe Slot's new system won't have us marooned on the counterattack in quite the same way as last season?
14 Jul 2024 17:05:13
It wasn't an experiment. We bought Endo because we needed a midfielder of that ilk. We missed out on 2 targets (Cacideo and Lavia), didn't have enough time to look at other options. So bought the best we could at that time. Endo and Mac Calister were are best 2 midfielders last season. We need another one who will rotate with Endo, not to replace him. Ideally it would be a better DM.
14 Jul 2024 17:44:25
We wanted a starter last year and we bought a cover ???. What is that people don’t get I don’t know. It’s the same this year, we need a starter, are we looking at one. Not atm ???
@Patrik
You are writing a para purely on hypothesis! According to you we should have signed a cover instead of Fabinho some years ago ?.
Agree that one player doesn’t win you the title, but one player takes us closer than where we are today.
Endo is the sort of player Manchester city sign to rest Rodri ?. We freking need a Rodri god damn!
14 Jul 2024 18:39:38
How many are Arteta “Developing, coaching, mentoring, tutoring, nurturing” players ????.
Rice - £110 mill
Zinchenko - £50 mill
Havertz - £65 mill
Jesus -£45 mill
Ricardo Califiori - £50 mill reported
Ivan Toney - £60 mill reported.
14 Jul 2024 20:29:59
@Jaguar, you are correct, you don’t know what a failed experiment is. Perhaps you could look up Caicedo and Chelsea or Grealish or Philips and City. You are just trying to sensationalise for the sake of it.
15 Jul 2024 03:19:47
Jaguar, sure we could do with a Rodri, I mean he is only the best midfielder in the world on form and in terms of importance to both Spain and City, but you missed the fact that he is unique and the only player of his type in the world, just as Fabinho was for us in his prime with his extreme mobility, tactical intelligence, athleticism as well as his ability to shield and pass the ball. You saying 'we need a Rodri' is pointless. Maybe you would feel better if you stopped coveting players/ prospective players from other teams, I'm sure the club is working out what they need and how problems can be solved, when the window closes you can moan but right now it just comes across as a lot of complaining about nothing.
15 Jul 2024 03:24:41
Criticism of Endo gets on my nerves, man.
He won’t be competing for the Ballon D’or any time soon, right, but do you know who the biggest acknowledger of that is? Endo himself.
He is a highly intelligent, adaptable player humble enough to admit Liverpool might need more quality in the future but I guarantee you the entire squad respects/ rates him highly.
He is an easy target because he is a Japanese player with fewer backers given the relative lack of Japanese-language online presence (it does exist) .
Meanwhile, idiots like Keita “the baller” and Oxlade Chamberlain do absolutely nothing for years yet get half the criticism (exaggeration, I know) .
Show some appreciation to a player who, though he always thought he’d get a chance somewhere, couldn’t believe it was Liverpool that were offering it. He’s damn sure tried to justify the club’s decision every day since.
15 Jul 2024 03:25:04
Might I add that Fabinho didn't look quite like the player that he became for us when he was bought from Monaco, he spent all his time actually playing as a flying right back before he was switched to the 6, at the time he wasn't in the Brazilian national team, clearly the scouting team identified qualities of his (most of all positional awareness and ability to cover large amounts of space quickly out wide) that would be perfect for the way we were set up and wanted to play. Certainly in terms of profile Fabinho wasn't a big name signing, either, unless you're telling me that at the time you knew he was going to be a world beater.